In elevator systems, elevator roping is used for suspending and/or moving an elevator car, a counterweight or both. In modern elevators lightweight suspension roping is used, where the elevator roping comprises plural belt-type ropes where the width of the rope is larger than its thickness in a transverse direction of the rope. The rope comprises a load-bearing part made of composite materials, which composite materials comprise non-metallic reinforcing fibers in polymer matrix material. The structure and choice of material make it possible to achieve lightweight elevator ropes having a thin construction in the bending direction, a good tensile stiffness and tensile strength in longitudinal direction. In addition, the rope structure remains substantially unchanged at bending, which contributes towards a long service life.
Several arrangements have been presented to provide tools for attaching elevator ropes with the elevator units. With non-metallic elevator ropes, particularly with elevator ropes made of fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials, it is challenging to make mechanical attachment with the elevator unit without causing damage in the elevator rope.
Rope terminal assembly is traditionally constructed from metallic materials, such as steel, with two wedge elements. The drawback of this kind of elevator rope terminal assembly is that the contact surfaces of the wedge element are different with different friction coefficients on different sides of the wedge element. The different wedge element contact surfaces with different friction coefficients are not optimal from mechanical behavior point of view.
Furthermore, the elevator roping typically comprises plural ropes, which makes the number of rope terminals needed numerous and hence heavy weight and the production of large amounts of complicated rope terminal products, especially on assembly lines, costly. It would be advantageous if the elevator rope terminal assembly could be formed as simple as possible with only one wedge element. There is thus a growing need for a cost effective and reliable elevator rope terminal assembly comprising also a connection to the rope condition monitoring means of an elevator.